The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Call for debate on death penalty

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 06, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Call for debate on death penalty

Staff Reporter

VISAKHAPATNAM: Forum for Better Visakha coordinator and social activist E.A.S. Sarma on Sunday called for a debate on capital punishment.

Taking part in discussion on ‘Global moratorium on death penalty’ held here by Amnesty International – India (AII), he said the world opinion was divided though majority had banned death penalty.

AU Law College Principal Y. Satyanarayana said the State was meant to protect life and pointed out how the Statute guaranteed right to life. He said the apex court in the Bachan Singh case stated that death penalty should be awarded only in the `rarest of the rare’ cases.

He also described how Justice Chandrachud had reacted over Section 303 of Indian Penal Code in 1973, which stated the minimum penalty for killing someone by a person undergoing life imprisonment should be death. He quoted Justice Chandrachud as saying: “Fortunately, it’s destined to die in my hands. Hence, I am killing it by declaring 303 as unconstitutional.”

Prof. Satyanarayana said in the criminal justice system, the maximum punishment was prescribed leaving the minimum to the discretion of the judges. But the section held unconstitutional by him had taken away the beneficial discretion of the highest court of the land. He said in the `rarest of the rare’ cases, the judge should explain the reasons that compelled him to award death penalty. AAI activist Narava Prakasa Rao and Human Rights Forum State secretary V.S. Krishna, retired police inspector G. Ramulu and and others spoke.

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